Classifying Different Types of Feathers

Believe it or not, each feather on a bird has a specific number and name. This is particularly useful for feather repositories, so that they can sort what feathers each tribe has requested. When looking at a bird wing, primaries and secondaries are the most visible and recognizable of the bird feathers. The primaries and secondaries are called remiges (feathers that aid in flight).

picture courtesy The Feather Atlas from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife  Service

There are usually ten primaries (sometimes nine in certain songbirds) and nine to twenty five secondaries depending on the length of the wing. Primaries are attached to the bones of the “hand” which consists of the metacarpals and digits fused together. Secondaries are attached to the ulna bone. All birds have a small group of stiff feathers attached to the pollex (the thumb bone) called the alula. The alula aids the bird in lift and maneuverability during flight.

picture courtesy J. Arthur Thomson in Outlines of Zoology

As I said before, each feather has its own number. The inner most primary feather is called primary 1 and onward to the 10^th primary at the tip of the wing. Secondary 1 is the outermost secondary and the rest of the secondaries are numbered from the outermost inwards. I suggest you look at the diagram J

picture courtesy AZParrots.com

Coverts are the feathers that cover the base of the flight feathers. Tertials or tertiary feathers are the innermost flight feathers of the wing and attach to the humerus bone of the bird. There are usually three or four tertials.

Now my challenge to you is to identify the feathers from the pictures of the flicker wing in my last post!

CG

P.S. After a long day of pricking scary, but beautiful birds of prey with needles, its rather nice to feed some harmless baby bunnies (We have six at Liberty now) XOXO